sea, it must go out ;) so there is no just cause of fear, but in God's displeasure. Mens in timore Domini constituta, non invenit extra quod metuat. 35 God is all; and if I be established in him, what thing can I fear, when there is nothing without him? Nothing simply, at least nothing that can hurt me; Quæ sunt in mundo non nocent iis qui extra mundum sunt3, This world cannot hurt him that made it, nor them that are laid up in him Jonas did but change his vessel, his ship, when he entered the whale, he was not shipwrecked, God was his pilot there, as well as in the ship, and therefore he as confident there. It is meant of Christ, which is spoken in the person of Wisdom, Whoso hearkeneth unto me, shall dwell safely, and be quiet from the fear of evils. And therefore, when you hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified; these things must come to pass, but the end is not by and by; imaginations, and temptations, and alienations, and tribulations must come: but this is not the end; the end that God looks for, is, that by the benefit of his fear we should stand out all these.

So then to teach you the fear of the Lord, is to teach you what it doth, that you may love it, and what it is, that you may know it. That which it doth, is, that it makes you a constant, a confident, a valiant man, that which God, who is always the same, loves. How doth it that? Thus. As he that is fallen into the king's hand for debt to him, is safe from other creditors, so is he, that fears the Lord, from other fears. He that loves the Lord, loves him with all his love; he that fears the Lord, fears him with all his fear too; God takes no half affections. Upon those words, Be not highminded, but fear, Clement of Alexandria, hath another reading; super-time, over-fear; that is, carry thy fear to the highest place; place thy fear there, where it may be above all other fears. In the multitude of dreams, there are divers vanities, but fear thou the Lord. All fearful things pass away as dreams, as vanities, to him that fears the Lord; they offer at him, but in vain, if he be established with that fear. In Christ there was no bone broken; in him that fears the Lord, no constant purpose is ever shaken. Of Job it is said, that he was per

fect and upright; that is a rare wonder, but the wonder is qualified in the addition, He feared God. So are they put together in Simeon, Justus et timoratus, He was a just man; how should he be otherwise? He feared God. Consider your enemies, and be not deceived with an imagination of their power, but see whether they be worthy of your fear, if you fear God. The world is your enemy; Sed vicit mundum, Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world", saith Christ. If it were not so, yet we are none of it; Ye are not of the world, for I have chosen you out of the world". Howsoever, the world would do us no harm, the world would be good enough of itself, but that the prince of the world, the devil, is anima mundi, the soul of this lower world, he inanimates, he actuates, he exalts, the malignity of the world against us; and he is our second enemy. It was not the apple, but the serpent that tempted; Eve, no doubt, had looked upon the fruit before, and yet did not long. But even this enemy is not so dangerous, as he is conceived. In the life of St. Basil, we have a story, that the devil appeared to a penitent sinner at his prayers, and told him, If you will let me alone, I will let you alone, meddle not with me, and I will not meddle with you. He found that by this good soul's prayers to God, God had weakened his power, not only upon that man that prayed, but upon others too; and therefore he was content, to come to a cessation of arms with him, that he might turn his forces another way. Truly he might say to many of us, in a worse sense, Let me alone, and I will let you alone; tempt not me, and I will not tempt you: our idleness, our high diet, our wanton discourse, our exposing ourselves to occasion of sin, provoke and call in the devil, when he seeks not us. The devil possesses the world, and we possess the devil. But then, if the fear of the Lord possess us, our own concupiscences, (though they be indeed our greatest enemies) because the war that they maintain is a civil war) shall do us no harm, for as the Septuagint in their translation, diminish the power of the devil, in that name Myrmecoleon, (a disproportioned creature, made up of a lion and an ant, because as St. Gregory saith upon that place) Formicis leo est, volatilibus formica, The

39 Job i. 1.

40 Luke ii. 25.

42 John xv. 19.

41 John xvi. 33. 43 Μυρμηκολέων.

devil is a lion to ants, dasheth whole hills of them with his paw, that creep under him, but he is but an ant to birds; they prey upon him, that fly above him. If we fear the Lord, our concupiscences, our carnal affections, ourselves, may prove our best friends, because, as the fire in the furnace did not burn the men, but it burnt off those bands, that fettered and manacled them, (for they were loose, and walked in the furnace") so our concupiscences, if we resist them, shall burn off themselves, and file off their own rust, and our salvation shall be surer by occasion of temptations. We may prevent mortem mortificatione, everlasting death, by a disciplinary life. Mori, ne moriamur, is his rule too, to die to the fires of lust here, lest we die in unquenchable fires hereafter; to die daily, (as St. Paul speaks of himself) lest we die at the last day. To end this, this is the working of the fear of the Lord, it devours all other fears; God will have no half-affections, God will have no partners; he that fears God fears nothing else.

This then is the operation of the fear of the Lord, this is his working; remains only to consider what this fear of the Lord is: and, beloved in him, be not afraid of it; for, this fear of God, is the love of God. And, howsoever there may be some amongst us, whom the height of birth, or of place, or of spirit hath kept from fear, they never feared anything, yet, I think, there is none, that never loved anything. Obligations of matrimony, or of friendship, or of blood, or of alliance, or of conversation, hath given every one of us, no doubt, some sense in ourselves, what it is to love, and to enjoy that which we do love; and the fear of God, is the love of God. The love of the Lord passeth all things, saith the wise man": the love, what is that to fear? It follows, The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of his love. As they that build arches, place centres under the arch, to bear up the work, till it be dried, and settled, but, after, all is arch, and there is no more centre, no more support; so to lie at the Lord's feet awhile, delivers us into his arms, to accustom ourselves to his fear, establishes us in his love. Be content to stop a little, even at the lowest fear, the fear of hell. When Saul was upon an expedition,

44 Dan. iii.

45 Augustine.

46 Ecclus. xxv. 11.

and did not find himself well followed, he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces", and proclaimed, that whosoever came not to the supply, all his oxen should be so served; and upon this, (says the text there) The fear of the Lord fell upon all the people, and they came out, as one man, three hundred and thirty thousand. If Saul's threatening of their worldly goods, wrought so; let God's threatening of thyself, thine inwardest self, thy soul, with hell, make thee to stop even upon thy fear of the Lord, the fear of torment. Stop upon the second fear too, the fear of privation and loss of the sight of God in heaven; that when all we have disputed, with a modest boldness, and wondered with a holy wonder, what kind of sight of God we shall have in heaven, then when thou shouldest come to an end, and to an answer of all these doubts, in an experimental trial, how he shall be seen, (seen thus) thou shalt see then that thou shalt never see him. After thou hast used to hear, all thy life, blessedness summed up into that one act, we shalt see God, thou shalt never come nearer to that knowledge, thou shalt never see him; fear the Lord therefore in this second fear, fear of privation. And fear him in a third fear, the fear of the loss of his grace here in this world, though thou have it now. St. Chrysostom serves himself and us, with an ordinary comparison, a tiler is upon the top of the house, but he looks to his footing, he is afraid of falling. A righteous man is in a high place in God's favour, but he may lose that place. Who is higher than Adam, higher than the angels? and whither fell they? Make not thou then thy assurance of standing, out of their arguments, that say it is impossible for the righteous to fall, the sins of the righteous are no sins in the sight of God; but build thy assurance upon the testimony of a good conscience, that thou usest all diligence, and holy industry, that thou mayest continue in God's favour, and fearest to lose it; for, he that hath no fear of losing, hath no care of keeping. Accustom thyself to these fears, and these fears will flow into a love. As love, and jealousy may be the same thing, so the fear and love of God will be all one; for jealousy is but a fear of losing. Brevissima differentia Testamentorum, timor et amor; this dis

tinguishes the two Testaments, the Old is a Testament of fear, the New of love; yet in this they grow all one, that we determine the Old Testament, in the New, and that we prove the New Testament by the Old; for, but by the Old, we should not know, that there was to be a New, nor, but for the New, that there was an Old; so the two Testaments grow one Bible; so in these two affections, if there were not a jealousy, a fear of losing God, we could not love him; nor can we fear to lose him, except we do love him. Place the affection, (by what name soever) upon the right object, God, and I have, in some measure, done that which this text directed, (Taught you the fear of the Lord) if I send you away in either disposition, timorous, or amorous, possessed with either, the fear, or the love of God; for, this fear is inchoative love, and this love is consummative fear; the love of God begins in fear, and the fear of God ends in love; and that love can never end, for God is love.

SERMON CXXVIII.

AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON, PREACHED AT ST. DUNSTAN'S, UPON THE COMMEMORATION OF A PARISHIONER, A BENEFACTOR TO THAT PARISH.

GENESIS iii. 24.

And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

THIS is God's malediction upon the serpent in paradise, there in the region, in the storehouse of all plenty, he must starve; this is the serpent's perpetual fast, his everlasting Lent, (Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.) There is a generation derived from this serpent, progenies viperarum, a generation of vipers, that will needs in a great, and unnecessary measure, keep this serpent's Lent, and bind themselves to perform his fast; for, the Carthusian will eat no flesh, (and yet, I never saw better bodied men, men of better habitudes and constitution, howsoever they recompense their abstinence from flesh) and the Fueillans will eat neither flesh nor fish, but roots, and salads, (and yet amongst

VOL. V.

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